Chatoyant College Book 12: Chapter 40: Questions

Several other people asked questions while Edie listened. Mara had a question about being unable to find her magic, and Philip was asking why he could seem to locate his magic, but not use it. Ginny answered both of them with, basically, advice to stay calm and keep trying.

Edie wondered if Mara even had magic, if she was unable to find it. Surely not everyone had magic available to them at all. Hadn’t Ginny said something along those lines? Maybe Edie was just remembering something that Corrie and Dawn had passed on from Professor Lal.

But she knew that trance magic allowed you to sense other people’s magic. Ginny must have checked everyone in the class, and presumably she would tell them if they just wouldn’t be able to do elemental magic at all. She might not want to tell them in front of everyone else, but she would probably have them come to her office hours.

In fact, maybe she had already done that. It could be that some of the people who weren’t asking questions but also hadn’t yet lit their candles already knew that they wouldn’t be able to do magic. Or they might not have come to class today. In that case, Ginny would already know that Mara had magic—she just had to work more to find it.

Well, it didn’t matter. Ginny was a good teacher and probably had everything all worked out. It wasn’t Edie’s business who could and could not do elemental magic, and if she was really curious, she would be able to check everyone’s inherent magic when they learned to do trance.

Edie glanced at Derwen and Darcy, wondering if they would have any questions, but they were quiet. Derwen was still smiling. Edie figured she was so proud of herself for having been the first to light her candle that she didn’t feel the need to ask questions. She wondered whether Derwen had taken her advice—or, well, the advice she’d been about to give when Ginny had interrupted them.

A couple more people asked questions that Ginny answered, but the answers weren’t interesting to Edie, so she ignored them, thinking about her own magic. She was sure some of the differences between what she’d experienced and what Corrie and Dawn had told her about must have something to do with her being part faerie. She would have to compare notes with Derwen later.

Ginny dismissed them at what must have been an odd time, since the halls and stairs were more empty than usual. Edie scrambled for her phone to make sure she wasn’t going to be late for her English class—they were discussing Sabriel—but sighed with relief when she saw that they were two minutes early, not late.

“Hey, Sarah, can I ask you something?” she said, quietly enough that she hoped Derwen would understand that it was a private question, and that she was just calling her ‘Sarah’ because other people might overhear.

Derwen glanced at her and smiled. “Sure, but can we go outside? It’s so nice out today.”

“Of course,” Edie said. They hurried down the stairs and into the bright sunlight. It was a nice day out; it was definitely spring now, even going into summer.

“What’s up? Want to ask how I did such an amazing job in magic class?”

“Well, yes,” Edie said, grinning. “I was wondering how you found your magic. You said that to use glamour, you sort of reach behind everything. Was it the same for your elemental magic?”

Derwen shook her head and grimaced. “No, I tried that, but it didn’t make any sense. I could have created an illusion of a flame, but I didn’t think that counted—and everyone would have been able to tell it was an illusion, since it wouldn’t melt the candle. I didn’t want Ginny to get mad at me for faking.”

“So you just managed to find your magic?”

“I’m not sure.” Derwen was frowning. “It’s hard to describe. It was just sort of… there.”

“Maybe you don’t actually have to do anything,” Edie suggested. “Since you’re a faerie, maybe elemental magic is just sort of available to you at all times.”

“Is it the same way for you?”

Edie shook her head. “No, I sort of had to sink into it. Like I was laying down, or reaching down, but not physically. It was a lot easier to get in than to get out, though.”

“Did you get out?”

“Yeah, didn’t you?”

Derwen shrugged. “At the end of class, I tried, but since I don’t know how I got in, I couldn’t figure out how to get out. Maybe I can just do magic at any time.”

Edie wondered why Derwen hadn’t tried to practice getting in and out. Had she just sat there the whole class after lighting her candle, not doing anything else with her magic? “Well, I guess you’ll see if you can do it again tomorrow.”